Iranian Politician: We Can Make Nukes, But Don't Worry, We Won't

Because nothing says "trustworthy" like openly admitting you have the capacity to easily make nuclear weapons, but promising your darndest that you won't use them -- especially after you've been stonewalling and dodging honest answers about your nuclear program for years. How nice that they've finally decided to just come clean already, right?

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran has the knowledge and scientific capability to produce nuclear weapons but will never do so, a prominent lawmaker has said.

Gholamreza Mesbahi Moghadam is a parliamentarian not a government official and his views do not represent the Iranian government's policy. It however is the first time that such a prominent Iranian politician has publicly stated that Iran has the technological capability to produce a nuclear weapon. ...

The statement comes before planned talks beginning next week with the U.S. and other world powers over Tehran's nuclear ambitions. ...

"Iran has the scientific and technological capability to produce (a) nuclear weapon, but will never choose this path," he said in remarks carried by the parliamentary website icana.ir. ...

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has also asserted that if Iran one day decides to build nuclear weapons, it will do so openly and won't fear anybody. However, he has also emphasized that Iran has no intention to weaponize what he describes as a peaceful nuclear program. ...

U.S. intelligence officials say they generally stand by a 2007 intelligence assessment that asserts Iran stopped comprehensive secret work on developing nuclear arms in 2003. But Britain, France, Germany, Israel and other U.S. allies think such activities have continued past that date, a suspicion shared by the IAEA, which says in recent reports that some isolated and sporadic activities may be ongoing.